Lessons
by spottedhorse
Summary: Greek myth meets GSR.  Read and find out.


To me the GSR storyline has always hinted strongly of Pygmalion, with the CSI twist, of course. So here's my take on it's resolution.

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He stood, staring at her. His mouth hung slightly open as he tried to digest what she was saying. Racing wildly, his mind wouldn't focus. He understood that the gist of her words; it was over. The day he had feared from the beginning had arrived. The student had outgrown the teacher.

The story of Pygmalion flashed into his brain. But was he the sculptor from Ovid's play, _Metamorphoses_ or the professor from Shaw's play? Neither story ended the way that he had hoped they would...actually, he had hoped that they would never end. In Ovid's version, Pygmalion was happy with the relationship, but Galatea was never quite as satisfied. In Shaw's version, Liza turned on him and married another.

He had known that a romatic relationship would be risky. Their age difference was only a small part of the difficulty. Of greater concern to him had always been their relationship as mentor and student. If he did his job well as her mentor, she would eventually outgrow her need of him. And was her attraction to him in part because of his position as mentor? And did he love her because of who she was or who he could mold her to be? His hesitation over the years had always been fueled by those questions.

And since her kidnapping and near death in the desert, she had been different. At first he had thought it was due to her tiredness and pain. But as the days and weeks wore on, he realized that slowly she was distancing herself from him and everyone else in her life that cared about her. It was as if she was watching everyone but never quite engaging with them. On the surface, everything seemed normal. And she still looked at him with that look...the one she only shared with him. But something was missing, as if it had been lost and was still lying out on the desert somewhere. He couldn't let her go...couldn't lose her after almost losing her and finding her just a shorttime ago.

"Gilbert...are you even listening to me?" she asked impatiently.

Sadly he brought his eyes up to meet hers. "You want to leave me...but I don't understand why. Why, Sara?"

"I told you," she sighed, exasperated. "I don't feel like I belong here anymore...and...something is different inside of me. I still love you, I really do...but I have to find that part of me that I lost. Until I feel whole again, I'm no good for me or for you." Tears were trickling out of her eyes now. He knew she was hurting.

His hand closed in on the stream and gently wiped away the tears. As he looked into her eyes, he knew that she was right. He couldn't help her with this, as much as he wanted to. He hadn't even seen it coming and barely understood it now but she had understood it immediately. The Sara he had fallen in love with nine years ago was gone, lost to him forever. She had been replaced by this new woman, one who loved him but not in the same way, one that looked like his Sara but one that he would never completely recognize.

Yes, the student had outgrown the teacher. She had come to understand something which he could never seem to grasp. She understood the inner workings of the heart, hers and his. Just as she had known that loving each other and exploring that love would be right for them, she now knew that it was time to part. He had to trust her wisdom in this. She had become the teacher and he the student.

Quietly she turned and walked out, closing the door behind. Her things had been packed and loaded in her car that morning. She had left and taken everything of herself with her, leaving his townhouse in the same cold, lifeless condition that she had found it two years ago.

As he stood in the middle of the room, he wondered what he should do, how should he react. He had no experience from which he could draw. He had never opened his heart so widely before and let another human occupy so much space there. The space was now empty. Tears formed in his eyes but wouldn't fall. He heard a slight ringing in his ears, the ring that can only be heard in silence. Her scent hung in the air, he thought to himself. He looked from the door, to the couch, to the kitchen, and towards the window. In fact, his eyes travelled all around the space. It felt empty, just like his heart.

Suddenly the phone rang, breaking the silence. Checking the caller ID, he saw it was from CSI. Answering, he noted the address of the crime scene and mentally began collecting what he would need. As he closed the phone, he shrugged his shoulders. "Time to go back to work, back to my life," he said outloud. "The beautiful dream is over."

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Reviews please???????? Pretty please???????


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